A Pragmatic Choice

Theo Schlossnagle, CEO of OmniTI,
said, "Oracle is notoriously bad at managing open-source communities.
IBM is notoriously decent at it -- almost -good.' Without this
collaboration, enterprise customers would have good reason to be
uncertain about the future of open Java and its community."

Schlossnagle added, "Oracle just recently snuffed the OpenSolaris
community that Sun took time to build and feed. Their move with
OpenSolaris clearly shook the confidence of many of their enterprise
customers. So, uncertainty was in the air for other open-source
initiatives they had. IBMs involvement certainly stabilizes the
situation."

IBM has been a backer of the Apache Harmony
open-source implementation of Java. However, Smith said OpenJDK is
picking up some classes from Harmony. "We've made a decision that
collaborating within a single open-source project will deliver more
innovation faster and strengthen the Java community overall," Smith
told eWEEK. "So in terms of the Apache Harmony project, we will
continue to support work within the Harmony project but we're going to
be making OpenJDK our strategic and primary open-source forum for Java
SE."

Meanwhile, Smith, Rizvi and Adam Messinger, vice
president of Oracle Fusion Middleware, said they expect to see changes
and improvements to the JCP (Java Community Process) that will benefit
developers.

Eclipse's Milinkovich said, "I was also intrigued by the comments in the blog posts from Oracle and IBM which implied that additional announcements in relation to the governance of the JCP and impending JSRs for Java7
will be coming shortly. If we can move the JCP forward in a positive
way then the Java ecosystem will truly be in a position to regain its
momentum."

"We think this is the pragmatic choice. It became
clear to us that first Sun and then Oracle were never planning to make
the important test and certification tests for Java, the Java SE TCK,
available to Apache. We disagreed with this choice, but it was not ours
to make. So rather than continue to drive Harmony as an unofficial and
uncertified Java effort, we decided to shift direction and put our
efforts into OpenJDK. Our involvement will not be casual as we plan to
hold leadership positions and, with the other members of the community,
fully expect to have a strong say in how the project is managed and in
which technical direction it goes.

"We also expect to see some long needed reforms in
the JCP, the Java Community Process, to make it more democratic,
transparent and open. IBM and, indeed Oracle, have been lobbying for
such transformations for years and we're pleased to see them happening
now. It's time. Actually, it's past time."

In summary, Sutor said, "OpenJDK represents the
best chance to provide a top notch, unified open-source runtime for
Java; customers will benefit by having first-class Java open standards
developed collaboratively and constructively; and our energy will be
focused on working together and optimizing our joint work, rather than
wasting time on duplicative projects."

Asked why IBM decided to join the OpenJDK effort
now after laying back from it in the past, Smith credited Oracle for
"taking initiative to get us on the phone. Overall, it's in our best
interest."

For his part, one Java developer and executive in
a major company in the Java ecosystem, who asked not to be identified,
said, "Seems to me that both Oracle and IBM make large profits on
companies that standardize on Java technologies. The last thing either
of them need is for those companies to think that Java isn't safe, is
stagnant or might become splintered. I think this announcement is
basically both of them reassuring their cash cows that -Java is safe
and still a great choice, now and in the future. Now pay us.'"

Meanwhile, Java creator James Gosling, said to eWEEK of the Oracle/IBM move:

"It's pretty vague. But hopeful. One the one hand
'it's just business,' and it's strongly in the best interests of both
parties for peace to break out. On the other hand, they both want to be
the master of the universe. I'm somewhat surprised that they both seem
to have eaten some humble pie. I hope this turns into breaking the JCP
logjam. Good step. I'd like to think that all the public scrutiny on
Oracle+Java has helped."

Darryl K. Taft covers the development tools and developer-related issues beat from his office in Baltimore. He has more than 10 years of experience in the business and is always looking for the next scoop. Taft is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and was named 'one of the most active middleware reporters in the world' by The Middleware Co. He also has his own card in the 'Who's Who in Enterprise Java' deck.